To give a few examples: in checkers (British English name 'draughts'), a player wins by capturing all opposing pieces, while Eurogames often end with a calculation of final scores.
Pandemic is a cooperative game where players all win or lose as a team, and peg solitaire is a puzzle for one person.
Rules can range from the very simple, such as in snakes and ladders; to deeply complex, as in Advanced Squad Leader.
The time required to learn or master gameplay varies greatly from game to game, but is not necessarily related to the number or complexity of rules; for example, chess or Go possess relatively simple rulesets but have great strategic depth.
[8] Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved[9] in most cultures and societies throughout history.
[15] Hounds and jackals, another ancient Egyptian board game, appeared around 2000 BC.
The board game Patolli originated in Mesoamerica and was played by a wide range of pre-Columbian cultures such as the Toltecs and the Aztecs.
[23] In ancient Ireland, the game of fidchell or ficheall, is said to date back to at least 144 AD,[24] though this is likely an anachronism.
[26] Early board game producers in the second half of the eighteenth century were mapmakers.
Kriegsspiel is a genre of wargaming developed in 19th century Prussia to teach battle tactics to officers.
[21] Margaret Hofer described the period of the 1880s–1920s as "The Golden Age" of board gaming in America.
[32] Board game popularity was boosted, like that of many items, through mass production, which made them cheaper and more easily available.
In Africa and the Middle East, mancala is a popular board game archetype with many regional variations.
[citation needed] In the late 1990s, companies began producing more new games to serve a growing worldwide market.
[42] The elements of luck can also make for more excitement at times, and allow for more diverse and multifaceted strategies, as concepts such as expected value and risk management must be considered.
[36] The rise in board game popularity has been attributed to quality improvement (more elegant mechanics, components, artwork, and graphics) as well as increased availability thanks to sales through the Internet.
[36] Crowd-sourcing for board games is a large facet of the market, with $233 million raised on Kickstarter in 2020.
[66] In 2009, Germany was considered to be the best market per capita, with the highest number of games sold per individual.
Much research has been carried out on chess, partly because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise.
The works of Adriaan de Groot, William Chase, Herbert A. Simon, and Fernand Gobet have established that knowledge, more than the ability to anticipate moves, plays an essential role in chess-playing ability.
[74] Linearly arranged board games have improved children's spatial numerical understanding.
[76] Playing board games has also been tied to improving children's executive functions[77] and help reduce risks of dementia for the elderly.
Because of the gamble, they take in the early stage of the game there is a build-up of tension, which is immediately released once the train is robbed.
Parlett also distinguishes between abstract and thematic games, the latter having a specific theme or frame narrative (ex.